We once got a 4-star in pet care!!! What a shocker, we love animals so much and always spend so much time with them.
I guess the reason was that on our second last day, the two dogs got into a tiff, (while napping with me!) - one was blind and the other deaf. The deaf dog accidentally nudged the blind one, who got a fright and nipped at the deaf one, and then suddenly both were in a fighting frenzy for about 3 seconds until I stopped them. Feelings were hurt. They were still sulking the next day (with each other) despite our best efforts to distract them. When the HOâs arrived, we told them, and they said: âoh, it used to happen years ago, they didnât think itâs worth mentioning because it hasnât happened in so longâ.
They deducted a star because the one dog was so clingy on their return. I felt really deflated about the one 4-star category for many weeks. But then I just accepted it, as I feel nitpicking about it is worse, in my opinion, and it didnât affect out overall score.
After todayâs experience, I would say to always question a rating that you think is unfair. I wasnât going to but as the day progressed I got more and more upset about it, and then it turned out to be unfounded.
I wasnât going to ânitpickâ as I thought maybe the 4* was justified because I wasnât able to take out the rubbish. However, after a day of thinking about it and the support of this group, I would now always question a lower rating which, in this case, turned out to be a mistake.
I just responded to her review saying I hadnât been asked to look after the garden. I didnât bother customer service as that website isnât my main one
I understand the hurt feelings part. I am sure it wonât affect your getting future sits.
I find the âself-sufficiencyâ rating a bit odd. Especially with short sits, I would rather a sitter contact me with questions or even let me know they are having trouble with something, than struggle with it or not do something right. Other people may not want to be bothered while they are travelling, and I could see it being an annoyance on a long sit if a sitter left things undone or constantly called, but it seems like an extremely subjective category.
I recently got dinged a star on the âneat and tidyâ category and asked the homeowner about it, as I am particularly fastidious and concerned with leaving a home usually even cleaner than I found it. She mentioned something about the kitchen cooktop and floor not being perfect. However, the cleaning lady had just come that morning to do the floors, and I had only used the cooktop once since cleaning it, giving it a wipe afterward. Meanwhile, there were a number of areas in the house that had not been spotless when I arrived (nothing truly filthy, just not perticularly clean). Harrumph!
Needless to say, I was disappointed that this ruined my otherwise perfect 5-year, 5-star rating!
I got 4 stars in the âclean and tidyâ category on one of my first sits. The HO didnât explain in the review, so I asked her privately. She was annoyed that some items in the house were not returned exactly where I found them. Iâm talking really minor items - coasters that I moved to clean, a huge water urn on the kitchen counter moved about a foot away, a broom was placed upside down, apparently. This was a tiny house, so nothing could have been moved very far! Her message to me exaggerated and said that ânothingâ was where it should have been. What, did I move the sofa? Did I hide the bed?
She said that she had not had that problem with previous sitters but I see now that there are a few missing reviews since I stayed, so that might be revealing. At the time I was frustrated, especially since I fixed a problem with her robotic vacuum not docking properly, but now I can laugh it off.
As a HO I do think the ratings system is pants, and also reading the posts, very all or nothing, which is just not reality. I would stay at 3 star hotels, 4 star is pretty luxury!
I just rated my first sitter, who was lovely, and gave 5 stars not just because of that, but because reading the posts a 4 star seems to be an insult. I work in training and believe constructive criticism is helpful. I would prefer to read about a problem and how it was sorted mutually than omg they were perfect.
I would suggest that you rate each category out of 10, and 90% or more overall is â5 starsâ, or something like that - Iâm not an app developer!
And you could put reasons for your rating âIâm giving this person 4 stars just because of the issue with the bins, though everything else was greatâ - then as a prospective HO I could make my own assessment (I have a wheelie bin, hurrah! )
Personally I think the self sufficient category is wierd. Itâs inviting a lack of communication. Who would be 100% self sufficient in a brand new environment? As long as my dog is happy and the house is as I left it, Iâm happy!
Ouch, sounds like the owners are being a little harsh, are you sure there was nothing else? Weâve all forgot to put our bins out at some point, or asked a neighbour to whoâs forgot.
Iâm a sitter and if I was down rated for simply not being able to gain access to the bins because of a lock issue (regardless of whether it was health or a different reason) Iâd feel really sad. Surely itâs not a good enough reason to down-rate a sitter for. I feel for you
Iâd pop them a private message firstly to ask about the 4*, say itâs so you can improve for next time with other sits so you get a crystal clear answer and there wasnât anything else. Itâs totally unfair and unjust, you are sitting for free! Itâs as though they expect the level of an immaculate holiday cottage rental or airbnb, instead of a very innocent situation.
Hi @HappyDeb it was a happy outcome for @Dace it was an honest mistake on the part of the homeowner.
I have attached a screenshot from further back in this thread
@Helen74, I do agree with what you say and did initially accept the 4* rating for the reason given in my original post. That post was more of a moan than a complaint as it had dented my pride in my unbroken 5* record - haha! However, it turned out that the HO had made a mistake which has now been rectified.
There are definitely some glitches with the current review system . I have just looked at a sit where the previous sitter got 5 stars in every category a glowing review with no negatives in the comments from the HO but just three stars overall !!!
Hopefully the new system will not allow an overall star rating to be lower than the stars given in the categories .
)
.